The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphonies 7, 8 and 9, coupled with the composer’s concert overtures In Nature’s Realm, Carnival and Othello. The album is part of the 2024 Year of Czech Music. Dvořák’s final three symphonies show him at the peak of his compositional power and international fame, and exhibit an astonishing range of style and expression. The three concert overtures were initially conceived as the Nature, Life and Love trilogy, but eventually published separately. They share Dvořák’s audible love for nature and fascination for human life and passion. Presenting this core Czech repertoire allows the orchestra and maestro to once more demonstrate their congenial collaboration and full command of Dvořák’s abundant sound world.

Dvořák’s nine symphonies are among the most varied of any composed in the nineteenth century. The last three in particular show an astonishing range of style and expression reflecting the markedly different circumstances in which they were written: the Seventh composed for an enthusiastic London audience in England in 1885, the Eighth, conceived in the Bohemian countryside in 1889, primarily for himself, and the Symphony ‘From the New World’ (Z nového světa), as its title suggests, written during his time in America reflecting the excitement of new surroundings and influences. Between composing the eighth and ninth symphonies, Dvořák’s muse took off in a more programmatic direction with the overture cycle, Nature, Life and Love. Although each has a clear mood and narrative, and sharing a distinctive melodic idea, they are also powerfully symphonic.

The Czech Philharmonic
Semyon Bychkov – Chief Conductor and Music Director